EMPOWER: John & AJ distinguish Fail-URE as permanent while Fail-ING as a process is temporary. Describe how you see these terms play out in your classroom. EMPOWER is a celebration of the impact teachers can have on the lives of their students. How do we amplify that impact when we empower students?
There are so many things that I connected with in these chapters. I love that the discussion isn't just about the concept of innovative within the classroom, it goes beyond that. The notion of innovation within the classroom is definitely important but how do you do that within the contraints of standards or curriculum maps, etc. I think I mentioned it last week, that it doesn't matter how the students get the information as long as they get it! Students can utilize voice and choice to choose their learning path to get to the outcome. I enjoyed that chapter 5 acknowledges that there are guidelines that teachers need to follow, but how they get there is subject to interpretation. Honestly, I am not sure that I agree with the concept of Fail-URE as permenant and Fail-ING as a temporary process. it might be the sociology major in me coning out with my next stream of thoughts. I believe that every experience you have shapes your line of thinking. Whether it is a positive or negative experience, it shapes your learning progression. I feel that this line of thinking applies all aspects of our lives.
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Jennifer Johnson
3/19/2018 10:58:32 am
I, too, struggled at first with the separation of the ideas of Fail-URE and Fail-ING. But, I think it is just another way of recognizing that learning includes lots of mistakes (failures?). I have been reflecting a lot with parent conferences, and I had a lot of students who were fail-ing when it came to checks-for-understanding, but then ultimately they were able to show that they had learned it by the end of the unit.
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3/21/2018 09:34:19 pm
I can totally see your point about how the experience you have can shapes your learning progression. I think this, though, points to the necessity of creating a failing-safe environment. I made it a point at the beginning of the year to set the tone that failing was good, that mistakes were celebrated, that struggles were chances for us to come together. We played games and clapped for failures, we cheered for students when they made mistakes, and we posted help wanted post-its when we struggled. After a couple of months, students shared gleefully that they had made a mistake and the class joined in praising that opportunity. It wasn't always so glamorous, but that is the role, then, of the teacher. We are the ones who can turn that negative experience into a positive one. We can show, often over a longer period of time, that what a student thought was negative is actually a positive. We have a results oriented, correct-minded culture in society and as educators we have to break through that so that children can find their voice, their passions and their will to continue to learn and strive through failing.
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AuthorI have worked in social work for over 25 years. The past 19 years have been within an elementary school setting. Archives
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